Protei is an unmanned shape-shifting sailing robot developed Open Hardware by a global community of makers called Open-H2O (former Open_Sailing) the collective randomwalks and Amorphica. Protei has no rudder nor centerboard : the entire hull bends to control this sailing robots providing it unprecedented sailing properties. Originally developed to clean up oil spill, Protei will be used to measure radioactivity, plastic debris, monitor fisheries, coral reefs, algae blooms, provide general oceanographic data or serving as surface satellite link to underwater vehicles. Protei has been produced by the V2_in Rotterdam, NL. Protei has been generously funded by over 300 backers on Kickstarter. Everyone is welcome to join, contribute, modify, produce, distribute the design and share their findings.

Table of contents

Netherlands

Piem & Alvaro.

MARIN : Natural Propulsion Seminar (January 20)Protei was a great success at the presentation.→ Made lots of interesting contacts

IMTECH : Meeting with Mart Hurkmans <Mart.Hurkmans@imtech.nl>, Peter van der Klugt (February 15)They are: http://www.imtechmarine.com/have a lot of knowledge about steering BIG ships, and know about autonomous sailing first-handare willing to work with us to co-develop the chip that will be the "brain" of Protei. feel they could design the Microprocessor unit which would work for Protei, including the AI functionality.BUT cannot sponsor that, so we should come up with some sort of marketing strategy. Comparable to Arduino kits for model/ toy helicopters etc...

We need to→ show them the market study. They would get involve if there is an economic gain to be made. → meet them again in May at the DEAF Festival (Cesar and Piem in May)

To quickly go through some of themSeems that San Francisco along the water is a perfect place for Protei's Develpment. Water : Sailing Conditions/ OpenSource Community Spir. So here it is step by step20120214 Noisebridge San Francisco, Rachel Lyra Hospodar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSSsrI-_y-wGreat community of hackers and local makers where Protei could be developed. Escpecially interesting : open at night!

20120215 Techshop, OpenROV David Lang, Eric : http://youtu.be/xJEwm0Bxaewit s downtown sf http://www.techshop.ws/index.htmlMonthly membership perfect to build Protei, there is 4 in the Bay Area... and we met the CEO they re working on their European Expansion (watch out !). It would be the perfect place to build Protei. They encourage Open source start ups and collaborations

20120216 Instructables. matthew and Wade : http://youtu.be/7uMpbXLzQZQwe went quickly at Instructables.com HQ, bought and supported by AUTODESK, best website of the web. They love Protei. Our Intellectual Property and theirs are compatible. We encourage Proteans to post Protei Proto >>Prototypes<< on Instructables for research and feedback, and Protei >>Products<< on our future website. Instructables would be happy to promote our launch event in the Bay in the fall, involving local makers community.

20120216 Richard Rikoski, and the potential of Protei on the market of transport of sensors and clean up materialHe basically said that if we manage to sail at >2.5 knots, can carry >1t payload, if our price tag <20'000$, with a big autonomy, we're open source and we can produce quickly : we're gonna get big and become very useful. Rick confirmed our potential competitive positionning regarding Liquid robotics http://liquidr.com/

20120216 Open Gardens [http://www.slideshare.net/Anthenor/open-garden-for-androidopen]They are primarily developing Mesh network over Bluetooth but are very interested in using their software architecture over larger distances and other communication protocols. Open Source technology they d be interested in using Protei as a platforme of experiment for their product and could be a very interesting tool for Sensing.

20120217 Mozillahttp://youtu.be/F1j522rM0D8Cesar gave a Talk at Mozilla, 15 min presentation + Q&A (video link above)It was interesting as Mozilla is a for-profit owned by a non-for Profit (fundation)They explain how they developed their organization organically. The IP is owned by the NON Profit to protect the community and making sure the technology keeps growing. The Profit is there to compete on the market. We'll have something very similar for Open H20. Cesar is moving to SF to serve Protei community better.

20120219 Florent Saint Clair, our first angel InvestorFlorent has beeen working with VC Funds. He is French originaly but now is American.He s been launching 4 companies and now run a big IT medical initiative : emix.comHe is well connected in the Valley and currently working also on Social Business Inversments and Social Business Initiatives development

20120220 Exploratorium, Susan [http://www.exploratorium.edu/]They are a very interactive science museum. At the end of the year they are relocating on a Pier, which means that in a few month their building will have their feets in the water. They are looking for a way to connect with the America’s cup [http://www.americascup.com], which is departing from the Bay and they see Protei as a good connecting project : sailing and ocean science. The idea is to establish- a short term relationship for a regatta of Protei during the America’s cup- a long term relationship of having many Protei studying the bay, piloted by kids from the Exploratorium.

20120223 Monterrey, Doug Au, DIrector of engineering & Development. Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute [http://www.mbari.org]They have the most amazing fabrication facility by the Pacific Ocean. They have been at the forefront of ocean instrumentation being supported by the Packard (HP) Foundation. They are very interested in Protei and could upgrade some of their current research with Protei.

20120227 Brie Pettis, Makerbot [http://www.makerbot.com/]Learned a lot talking to Bre Pettis and how to manage the transition between a small open spurce project and a big funded Open Hardware Project.

20120227 Ayah Bder, Lilttle Bits [http://littlebits.cc/]Like Cesar, she’s aslo a TED Fellow, but Cesar met her for the first time at the Open Hardware summit she organized in New York in 2010. In 2011 Gabriella Levine represented the Protei project and was super successful. Ayah shared her knowledge and accepted to join the board of advisor of Protei. This is a great news to have the rising star of the open hardware movement lighting our path.

20120301 William Saito, Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation CommissionHe was very skeptical towards using new technologies arguing the issue is too complex and would prefer to rely on older technologies. He also said that the distribution of radioactiovity is very linear and not measurable radioactivty leaks beyond the area they study (20 km radius), information contradicted by other independent research on the topics … humhum... Not making me very comfortable... It made very clear that Protei would be a usefull new technology to provide fresh independent research on radioactivity.

20120302 Hiroshi Tasaka PhD, Prof. Special Advisor to Prime minister japanSame impression from Prof Tasaka. It is a complex affair and the health of this part of the Pacific Ocean and millions of people living there is of concern here. Worth making one more study.

20120228 Houssem Aoui : TEDxOrganizer // open source connector // inventor connector to sponsors (Francis : Ocean preservation + Philantropist)// TEDxSeaPoint Organizer// would support any intitiatives join the Open-H2O plateformhe s gonna make us some intros for the funding of PRotei's R&D. Houssem is the TEDxTunis organizer has been involved in the Arab Spring, is now TEDxSummit (in Doha) Organizor. We are daily in touch and he s willing to support our fantastic community's initiatives and he should make us intros @ TEDxSummit as he introduced me to Shell Game Changers - Russell J Conserhttp://www.shell.com/home/content/innovation/innovative_thinking/game_changer/they finance R&D initiatives

“For lack of money, a few connections, and perhaps a bit of guidance, many great ideas never get off the ground. GameChanger can help. If you have a creative mind and you believe your invention can transform the energy industry, perhaps you should be speaking to us. We invest in novel, early stage ideas that could impact the Energy System to help you get them from your mind to “proof of concept.””

UK

Lisa & HeleneWe had our first angel Investor Florent but have not yet found our main source of income to develop Protei or support our core administrative team in London. So, we unfortunately had to agree on ending the employed positions of Helene and Lisa. Helene and Lisa will no longer be the administrator and manager of the project for the time being. We miss their kind presence and work.

China

Shenzeng Maker faire : http://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/?s=maker+faireGabby is trying to get there. Cesar confirms Protei_006 (the one that was in ARCO) is ready to be shipped.-> Gabby needs to put Cesar and Maker faire Shenzen to ship Protei there.

Spain

Laboral is interested in developing / selling Proteihttp://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/esSebastian met a group of artists/designers incl. el ultimo grito , who were having a workshop about the future of products in Madrid. They were working on an online store for laboral they want to have products in there, which come from their fablab... Not finished products more prototypes of a first idea to transport the philosophy of laboral. Seb talked with them about protei , because it perfectly fits in there...

Brasil

Kasia + Gabby + Felipe + Bruno Vianna

Future developments

Website : Launch in Doha

Open-H20.org Mission Statement Develop and Promote open source software and open source hardware for the study, protection and betterment of the oceans.

Everyone is continuying to develop their thread in their countries and moving forward. On the construction of Protei as a legal entity and general community, these are big milestones we are looking at :

1. Legal status : register in the USA as a Profit and Non-Profit2. Website : making a good website for our community3. Building and calling for participation : calling at TEDxSummit Doha4. Product : The community will co-generate a product that will spread the "Protei Love" and be a great modular framework for other research to build upon for specific applications5. Local Applications : many local applications from Oil sensing to radioactivity sensing, to plastic and fish counting will follow and reported on the website.

Tech Awards Ru + Cesar

Florida

Nathan is interested in starting a group focusing on red tide.

Doha, TEDxSummit

April 15th - 22ndhttp://tedxsummit.ted.com/Aurelie & Cesar will be there, launching the new website to 800 TEDxOrganisers, looking for sponsors, proposing workshops for TEDxevents.